"One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things." - Dan Eldon

Monday, July 19, 2010

China Trip '10 Recap: Beijing

One trip, two chaperones, three weeks, four Miss LA Chinatown court members, five cities. My head is swimming from the past few weeks of excitement, adventure, companionship, experiences and travel. No time to waste! Must update now!

Let's start with Beijing.

Beijing, the country's capital, was last seen as the world's it-city thanks to the 2008 Olympics. It's got a nice mix of this old and new, from the Forbidden City to the Great Wall to the Bird's Nest. Here are some highlights...

The day we visited the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, it was SOO HOT.

We watched this acrobatics show where SIX-COUNT 'EM-SIX motorcyclists squeezed into this metal ball. It was painful to watch but I couldn't pull my eyes away.

We had a dinner one night where we actually had to order on our own (the rest of the time, the food just magically appears on the table right as we sit down) so I quickly scanned the menu. Seeing a picture of this big red bowl of soup with thingies sticking out of it, I thought it was this dish which had tasty fish soaked in the chili water base. After the dish arrived, it turned out the thingies sticking out of the soup were frogs. Whole pieces of frogs. Feeling responsible for the order, I ate 4 of those frogs. And then I proceeded to have stomach problems for the next 2 days.

We found this girl that looked exactly like Nebula in a magazine ad. Gotta love seeing Asian faces all over the magazines and billboards here in Asia.

Some other spots visited were the Bird's Nest and the Great Wall but they deserve their own posts.

Janice! It's Lauren from the trip, I am loving your blog posts. Girl you have a lot to update, I can't believe how much we all saw and experienced. Thanks for posting that candid photo of Shifu and I! I'm staying tuned for more and hope you're having fun as you are STILL in China! xx